Demythification of the german immigrant in Don Helmuth, el colono by Carlos Fuenzalida Valdivia

Abstract

The novel Don Helmuth, the colonist (1960) follows the criollista model to treat the subject of German colonization in southern Chile. Although it was published on near the centennial of German arrival, and is one of the few works in Spanish that portrays the establishment of the community, it has been largely ignored by critics. This essay analyzes the theme of “mythical” foundational narratives to examine the development of the protagonist, Helmuth Hensau. On the one hand, it demonstrates that the text demythifies the immigrant figure by including the criminal activities of the main character and those of his compatriots, and that the novel supplements historiography by discussing these negative aspects of settlement which are generally omitted. On the other, it proposes that it is precisely these illicit activities that permit the narrator to symbolically incorporate Germans into their adopted homeland as a new Chilean national “type”.